Latin Kings

The onetime state leader of the Latin Kings -- a former clinical psychologist -- was sentenced to 19 years in prison at U.S. District Court in Bridgeport Friday. Eduardo "Doc" Baez, 47, of New Haven, had pleaded guilty under the Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act on April 5, just before his trial was to begin. He admitted to conspiring to kill rival New Haven gang members in 1996 and to having a role in the double murder of two men killed in October 1995 by other members of the Latin Kings.

Carl Hardrick, aka Brother Carl, has devoted most his adult life to helping young people in Hartford's most challenged neighborhoods. He's negotiated gang truces, intervened in knife fights, coached basketball, visited the homes of troubled teenagers. Anything to help. That makes what happened last week all the more frustrating. The 72-year-old Hardrick was walking home Monday night when he was jumped and badly beaten by five or six youths who were attempting to rob him. They ended up stealing his glasses.

By JOSH KOVNER, jkovner@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, December 10, 2011

Beatrice Codianni spotted the young man at a recent violence-prevention forum in New Haven. There are a lot of those forums these days, as the cops and community grapple with a city homicide rate reminiscent of the gang-crazed early 1990s. Codianni is a pleasant-looking, matronly, 63-year-old white woman with long straight hair and glasses. She walked up to the young black man she spotted, a member of a group that tries to settle beefs on the street. She offered her services as a violence mediator; the man was looking everywhere but in Codianni's eyes.

By JOSH KOVNER, jkovner@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, December 10, 2011

Beatrice Codianni spotted the young man at a recent violence-prevention forum in New Haven. There are a lot of those forums these days, as the cops and community grapple with a city homicide rate reminiscent of the gang-crazed early 1990s. Codianni is a pleasant-looking, matronly, 63-year-old white woman with long straight hair and glasses. She walked up to the young black man she spotted, a member of a group that tries to settle beefs on the street. She offered her services as a violence mediator; the man was looking everywhere but in Codianni's eyes.

The news that the Latin Kings gang is helping state and local health officials warn young people about the dangers of smoking a drug known as illy, clicker or clickems raises an obvious question. Why the sudden spark of community spirit? Yes, education about the drug's potentially lethal side effects is warranted. Many adolescents apparently have been smoking tobacco, mint leaves or marijuana soaked in embalming fluid and sprinkled with PCP, a halluceinogenic drug. PCP can cause erratic and even violent behavior.

Jurors were given starkly different pictures of the Latin Kings Wednesday -- they heard alternately of a ruthless gang of murdering drug dealers, and of a social and political group formed to empower Hispanics -- as lawyers made opening statements in the racketeering trial of 10 ranking members. The trial in U.S. District Court is shaping up as the longest and most complicated prosecution of a racketeering conspiracy in Connecticut since 1991. It is expected to give the public its first extensive look at what a long list of law enforcement agencies consider the largest, most organized and most violent organization of drug dealers in the state.

She tells the story like this. Her oldest son was a heroin addict, and couldn't get any help. One day he came home to their apartment in New Haven and told his mother he had joined the Latin Kings. "Are you crazy?" she asked. "No, Mommy," he said, "it's not like you think." The kid stopped shooting drugs into his veins. So she went along with it. Then she started writing letters to the Kings, suggesting they get involved in such things as drug treatment and teen suicide prevention.

The Latin Kings killed nine people from 1991 to 1994 as part of a wave of violence intended to control their drug turf in New Haven and Bridgeport, according to a federal racketeering and conspiracy indictment unsealed Tuesday. The victims included 16-year-old Jessica Council, a bystander killed during a shooting in New Haven in June 1992, and three young men executed in the city's East Rock Park four months later, the report says. Others who fell out of favor were simply beaten, including one man who paid a gang leader, Beatrice Codianni, $100 for a business card that he was instructed to show to avoid further beatings, according to the report.

The Latin Kings, the state's largest and best- organized street gang, were dealt a severe blow in federal court Friday when a jury convicted its leaders of racketeering, nine murders and dozens of other crimes that could send them to prison for life. The convictions effectively remove nine ranking gang leaders from Bridgeport and New Haven, where the organization has become entrenched and gang enforcers ruthlessly used violence to protect their cocaine-selling network. "The verdict today shows that there is no room for gangs in our communities, that the public will not tolerate their violence and their drug-dealing," U.S. Attorney Christopher F. Droney said after the jury returned its verdict after a week of deliberations.

The onetime state leader of the Latin Kings -- a former clinical psychologist -- was sentenced to 19 years in prison at U.S. District Court in Bridgeport Friday. Eduardo "Doc" Baez, 47, of New Haven, had pleaded guilty under the Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act on April 5, just before his trial was to begin. He admitted to conspiring to kill rival New Haven gang members in 1996 and to having a role in the double murder of two men killed in October 1995 by other members of the Latin Kings.

By AMANDA FALCONE, afalcone@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, June 7, 2011

When Quintina Texidor called the police department March 29 complaining about harassment by some teenagers, she used words like "NBA" and "air up. " Those words might have alerted police that they were potentially dealing with a gang and possibly a dangerous situation. But Police Chief James Strillacci said the dispatchers handling Texidor's calls for police assistance were unfamiliar with gang jargon, which might have contributed to a delayed response. As a result of the shooting, police dispatchers were sent through gang awareness training in April.

A Hartford gang member who was imprisoned for killing a teenager during a drive-by shooting on Thanksgiving 1993 will be back in court today to be sentenced for violating parole. Jose "Jo Jo" Gonzalez, 33, of 51 Monroe St., faces up to 10 years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and an additional three years for violating parole. He is due in U.S. District Court in New Haven after pleading guilty to one count of possessing a firearm. Hartford police said a search of Gonzalez's home on Sept.

A Hartford gang member who was imprisoned for killing a teenager during a drive-by shooting on Thanksgiving 1993 will be back in court today to be sentenced for violating parole. Jose "Jo Jo" Gonzalez, 33, of 51 Monroe St., faces up to 10 years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and an additional three years for violating parole. He is due in U.S. District Court in New Haven after pleading guilty to one count of possessing a firearm. Hartford police said a search of Gonzalez's home on Sept.

A man who was the drug source for Latin King gang members who controlled cocaine sales in parts of Hartford was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday at U.S. District Court in New Haven. Federal prosecutors said that Hedric "Edrik" Velez, 35, of Vernon, received about 44 pounds of cocaine by mail from Puerto Rico between March 2008 and April 2009 and made about $40,000 in profit selling to gang members. Velez, who was arrested in April, is one of 55 people charged by Hartford police, state police and the FBI following a yearlong investigation of drug sales and violence in the Hartford area.

At just 20 years old, authorities say, Julio "J" Bonilla of Hartford has an extraordinary record of violence. Over four months last year, he was involved in at last three armed attacks, or attempted attacks, authorities say. In July 2008, an informant told authorities Bonilla drove a truckload of armed gang members on a raid that left six wounded - including a 13-year old - on Affleck Street in Hartford. In September, authorities say, a heavy police presence prevented his attempt to, in gang parlance, "Swiss cheese" a rival elsewhere in the city.

The city is suffering from a "gang infestation," with more than 138 street gangs and 4,000 members, including 800 under age 17, according to an internal police memorandum obtained by The Courant. The trend that disturbs police the most: "In 2009 the most alarming increase in gang activity has been documented within the public middle schools," the document says, describing middle school playgrounds with a "prison yard atmosphere." It notes that as "smaller gangs are joining forces against larger rival gangs ... recruitment is at an all-time high."

A high-ranking Latin Kings member will spend the rest of his life in prison for his part in violent drug operations that included the murder of a suspected police informant, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. A second gang member, also tied to the gang's drug activities in Bridgeport and New Haven, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Both men were among nine Latin Kings leaders convicted of racketeering and other charges last summer. In U.S. District Court Tuesday, Judge Alan H. Nevas handed down the life sentence to Alexis Antuna, 20, of Bridgeport, and the 35-year sentence to Francisco Soto, 28, of New Haven.

FBI agents Thursday charged two more members of the Latin Kings with conspiring to distribute drugs and they remained jailed with 16 other gang members arrested on similar charges Wednesday in Bridgeport and New Haven. Those arrested Thursday are Gilbert Rivera of Bridgeport and Antonio Martinez of New Haven. While the additional arrests were being made Thursday, detention hearings were taking place in federal court in Bridgeport to determine whether those arrested the day before should be released on bail or held until trial.